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“The tide is turning against an austerity approach” says Miliband

July 24, 2012 3:40 pm

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Following his meeting with French President Francois Hollande today, Ed Miliband said:

“The points of agreement we have were around the fact that the tide is turning against an austerity approach, that there needs to be a different way forward found.

“What President Hollande is seeking to do in France and what he is seeking to do in leading the debate in Europe is find that different way forward.

“We are in agreement in seeking that new way that needs to be found and I think can be found.”

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  • JoeDM

    So where is the money going to come from?

    Remember what Liam Byrne wrote for his successor at the Treasury only 2 years ago?  

    I’ll remind you:     “Dear chief secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam.”

    • Quiet_Sceptic

      Well for Europe, presumably it’ll be coming from the Germans and the Northern Block.

      Or not!

    • PeterBarnard

      The money, Mr DM, is going to come from the same place that Mr Osborne hopes to find an additional £121 bn of borrowing by 2015/16, compared to his Budget 2010 forecast.

    • Redshift

      The ‘where’s the money’ argument is looking increasingly circular the more that austerity harms growth. 

      When will you accept that austerity is harming demand and therefore growth, which reduces our tax income?

  • Hugh

    http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/c/c7/BertPortrait.jpg

    You never see them in the same place, do you?

    • Soverign

      How old are you? Twelve?

  • SkulduggeryPotato60
  • John Dore

    Eds doing well, but when he comes out with something like this he has to back it up with a little something ……….anything. Otherwise it sounds like empty words and thats the last thing that buys you credibility.

    If somebody said we’ll have an alternative to petrol tomorrow, you would be sceptical. If you said the same  but added we’re looking at synthetic petroleum synthesis you might just take notice.

    I believe this is why nobody trusts politicians.

    • treborc

       Like electric cars  you mean

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      You only have to open a newspaper or watch the news to find all the back-up you need. Also, good to see that Ed is co-hosting an anti-austerity conference with President Hollande later this year.

      And in the meantime, a history lesson from Ha-Joon Chang of Cambridge University:

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/04/austerity-policy-eurozone-crisis

  • hp

    Drivel.

  • hp

    The dividing line seems to be this:  those that have to pay for the debt are generally against it;  those that benefit from it are generally in favour of increasing it.
    Funny, that.

    • treborc

       So the poor are against it, the rich are  falling over themselves laughing at the poor, about right.

      • Alexwilliamz

        I doubt whether the poor have actually benefitted most from the debt. It could be argued that we have been under taxed for a while. It could also be argued that more of the debt actually went into the pockets of the rich through gvt contracts and those being highly paid in the public sector, plus consultants and of course bankers who all kept their jobs when really if the banks had been allowed to go the wall many would now be on the dole.

  • 000a000

    Read the latest IMF statement and that’s not what they think (despite what the Guardian says). Tight fiscal policy (ie austerity) is the name of the game.

    As I posted before the majority of the electorate are convinced by the Tory tax and spend (mos think current tax and spend levels are right).

    Miliband knows this – name the big government pro spending policies Miliband has signed his name to.

    • treborc

      Well of course the only way we will know if your right will be an election, if you win you can come back here if it’s still open, and gloat, if you lose I will pop over to Tory home and gloat at you.

      Of course as you know Policies are made by Governments in power, and opposition will come out with idea’s and manifesto pledges,  he may even have policies ideas, then again we would not want to help Osborne to much becaus he is doing so well  himself.

  • http://blog.philruse.com/ Phil Ruse

    I think I’ve found that ‘new way’: http://goo.gl/a8dGq (no charge)

  • Mario Peebles

    I’ve made this post before a few times but, so far, it has never been answered.

    Keynesian ideas have been seen to have been successful and pulled countries – indeed the world! – out of depressions and slumps in the past. This is indisputably and historically obvious. My question is has the kind of austerity programmes that are currently being implemented in the UK and other European countries ever been similarly successful in reigniting growth in flagging economies and saving them from ruin anywhere in the world? If so where, when, and exactly what happened to the populations of those countries? I’m asking this because so many people seem to be claiming that massive cuts, especially in tax and welfare, work better than Keynesian stimulus and investment based on borrowing but never furnish examples to back their statements up. If anybody could point me towards a half dozen or even a few pertinent examples of countries which have successfully starved themselves back to success as it were. 

    Thank you in advance.

    • treborc

      You will be asking the same question again, and again and again, because you know the answer your self, it’s NO we cannot point to it because it will be a mixture of cuts, and a mixture of spending, problem is now if you believe Government we are broke, but not that broke we cannot spend a  £100 billion on nukes.

    • Alexwilliamz

      Perhaps post it on conservative home?

  • Daniel Speight

    Isn’t it about time those from the likes of Progress and Labour Uncut who were pushing the two Eds just a few months ago to match Tory cuts, come out and apologise for their bad advice. Today’s figures show another 0.7% fall in growth. Cuts are not working on either the economy or the deficit.

  • Billsilver

    Of course the tide is turning.
    We’d ALL like to spend more money than we have or earn. Many people have done so.
    But it’s got to be paid back one day.
    When will Ed understand this? 
    And when does he think the repayments should start?

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